Broadband technologies jumpstart rural economies

SpaceX has amended its plan to built out an array of internet-providing, Starlink satellites. Most recently, the company requested that a portion of its constellation of spacecraft be placed at a lower altitude to avoid creating any unnecessary space junk.

That’s according to a new application filed with the Federal Communications Commission on November 9, which requested that 1,584 of its satellites be placed 550 kilometers above the Earth’s surface instead of the originally planned 1,150 km. SpaceX maintains that this would reduce the risk of adding to the already thousands of tons of floating space debris orbiting the planet.

“This modest modification to the SpaceX Authorization will slightly reduce the total number of spacecraft in the constellation, meet all required protection criteria for other systems operating in the same frequencies, and cause no overall increase in radio frequency interference,” stated the document.

ALSO: FCC BLASTS OFF — Brace yourself for space puns, FCC-watchers. The commission votes today on a slew of space-related items, including orders aimed at granting satellite companies access to the U.S. market to offer broadband services. Another order will authorize SpaceX to use more spectrum for its broadband satellite constellation. And the FCC will consider a rulemaking to update its regulations of “space debris.”